282 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 351 



termine a point about which it would seem that much uncertainty 

 existed, — the curious question of the effect of serpent-venom on 

 the serpents themselves. In a paper he has published he quotes 

 the contradictory conclusions arrived at by previous experimenters, 

 and endeavors to show, that, from the accounts of the experiments, 

 it by no means followed that death, when it occurred, was the re- 

 sult of auto- toxic action. Accordingly, he felt that the question 

 was still open, and proceeded to some very interesting investiga- 

 tions, conducted under different conditions of temperature and 

 season, verifying his results by control experiments upon other 

 animals and by post-inoriem examination of the snakes he em- 

 ployed. In every case the fresh venom was injected into the cobra 

 with an ordinary hypodermic syringe ; the serpents operated upon 

 were all healthy, and had recently been caught ; the snakes were 

 kept under observation from nine to fifteen days subsequently, and 

 were then killed. The experiments generally confirm and extend 

 the principle formulated by Fontana in 1765, that the venom is 

 neither a poison to the snake itself nor to those of its own species. 

 This immunity is not to be explained upon the mere fact of the 

 animal being cold-blooded, or upon the anatomical conformation 

 of ophidians, since most, if not all, of the non -venomous snakes 

 are susceptible to venom. Surgeon Waddell suggests that it may 

 result from a toleration established through frequent imbibition of 

 the venom in the modified or attenuated form which it assumes 

 when mixed with salivary and gastric juices and absorbed through 

 the alimentary canal ; and in support of this hypothesis he mentions 

 the popular belief that certain snake-charmers, by a process of in- 

 oculation with venom, gain protection against the bite of a particu- 

 lar species of venomous snake. If this hypothesis can be verified by 

 further experiments, it will go far towards affording indications 

 for combating the action of the venom on man. The subject is of 

 such importance, and the experiments detailed appear so con- 

 clusive, that we look forward with interest to the further prosecu- 

 tion of this inquiry. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 A SCHEME for bridging the English Channel has actually been 

 discussed by the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain. The 

 cost is set by the projectors at $170,000,000. The danger to 

 navigation, aside from any considerations of cost, is likely to be 

 enough of an objection to prevent the accomplishnxnt of the 

 project for many years to come. 



— The International Medical Congress, we learn from Nature, 

 will meet next year in Berlin, from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10. Inquiries 

 by intending visitors should be addressed to the general secretary. 

 Dr. Lassar, Karl Strasse, Berlin. The congress will be divided 

 into eighteen sections, and the official languages will be German, 

 English, and French. 



— According to Nature, the Ethnographic Congress, which held 

 meetings of its various sections every day of the week ending Oct. 

 5, in Paris, brought its proceedings to a close on Monday afternoon, 

 Oct. 7, in one of the large halls of the College of France. It was 

 decided that the congress should hold its next meeting at Bucha- 

 rest in the autumn of 1890. 



— At the first regular meeting of the Boston Society of Arts, 

 held at the Institute of Technology, Oct. 10, the paper of the even- 

 ing, as we learn from the Boston Medical and Surgical fournal, 

 was upon " Biological or Chemical Water-Analysis," by Professor 

 W. T. Sedgwick of the institute. He analyzed different waters, 

 claiming that one-third of a teaspoonful of Cochituate water, tested 

 by the gelatine process, contains sixty to one hundred bacteria, and 

 yet is as pure as the average water. The State Board of Health 

 was highly commended for its practical system of analyzing water. 

 After an interesting exhibition of filtered waters and vegetable de- 

 posits through sand, the meeting was adjourned. 



— The Philadelphia Inquirers Pittsburgh special, Oct. 15, 

 says, " That the natural-gas supply in that and adjoining districts 

 has passed its zenith, and is now upon the wane, can no longer be 

 satisfactorily denied. The reason usually given was that new 

 mains were being laid to the wells, or that the size of those already 

 down was being increased. These changes have all been made, 

 and still the desired fuel does not pour through in the necessary 



quantities. This state of affairs was first noticed the latter part of 

 last winter ; but the coming of warm weather relieved the pressure 

 for domestic purposes, and nothing was heard of a shortage during 

 the summer months. But with the first appearance of a change of 

 temperature this fall the trouble recommenced in an aggravated 

 form. The last move of the natural-gas companies has been to- 

 ask the big mills to run only at night, when the demand upon the 

 fuel for other purposes would be slight. Many of the establish- ' 

 ments have decided to return to the use of coal, and some have 

 already done so." 



— The British consul-general at Constantinople, in his last re- 

 port, refers to the declining commercial importance of that city. Its 

 trade has suffered considerably since 1878, and more particularly 

 during the past two years. Large wholesale houses which for- 

 merly did business with Persia and central Asia, and acted as- 

 middlemen between European manufacturers and the merchants of 

 those parts, have in recent years lost their customers, and are 

 gradually disappearing from the city. This is owing, in a measure,. 

 to new and more direct routes having been thrown open to markets 

 that were formerly supplied from Constantinople, and also to the 

 fact that produce which used to go to the Turkish capital for ship- 

 ment to Europe is now despatched direct from the outports. Per- 

 sia, which previously drew a considerable part of her imports from 

 Constantinople, has latterly commenced to make use of Bushire, 

 and the entire import trade of lower Persia is at present centred in 

 that place. The provinces of Azerbijan and Mazanderan alone 

 continue to take their supplies by way of Constantinople, and then 

 only when Russian competition permits of their doing so. The 

 export trade of the city has suffered in a similar way. The produce 

 of Turkish Kurdistan, estimated to amount to an annual value of 

 _£320,ooo, which two years ago went through the capital, is now 

 shipped from Bagdad, — a route which is considered to be less ex- 

 pensive and safer. As regards Persian trade especially, Mr. Faw- 

 cett observes that during the years 1887-88 it was not satisfactory., 



— Two items which appeared on p. 250 of our issue of the iitb 

 inst. — one in relation to the deepest hole in the world, and the- 

 other touching the effect of gas on asphalt pavements — should 

 have been credited to The Engineering and Building Record. A 

 feature of this journal in which many of our readers would be in- 

 terested is the insert architectural drawing given each week. These 

 drawings are remarkably well chosen, and are reproduced and 

 printed especially well. 



— The Engineeriiig and Mining Journal announces that a 

 movement has been started to erect a monument to the joint 

 memories of Fulton and Ericsson in Trinity Churchyard, New York.- 

 The idea originated out of an application which has been made> 

 and which is likely to be granted, for the interment of the great 

 Swedish inventor's remains in the Livingston Manor vault, which 

 would, as it happens, place them immediately next to the grave of 

 Robert Fulton, so that a joint memorial would seem to be espe- 

 cially appropriate. 



— The National Council of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at its- 

 triennial meeting at Saratoga in September, appointed a committee 

 to consider means of securing, in connection with the proposed 

 national commemoration of the discovery of America in 1892, "a 

 proper representation of the intellectual life of the American people, 

 as manifested by their progress in science and literature." The 

 committee was instructed especially to consider, according to The 

 Publishers' Weekly, the preparation of a " monumental work," to- 

 comprise a series of monographs on the progress of our people,- 

 during the four centuries since the discovery by Columbus, in 

 science and literature. The committee was authorized to offer two 

 prizes, of $3,000 each, " for the best general essays on the progress 

 of science and literature respectively ; such essays to embrace a 

 philosophical discussion of the development in the past and of the 

 outlook for the future." The committee appointed is a thoroughly 

 competent and admirably representative one, its members being 

 Bishop Henry C. Potter, chairman ; President Eliot of Harvard 

 University; President Dwight of Yale; President Gilman of Johns 

 Hopkins ; President Adams of Cornell ; President Angell of the 

 University of Michigan ; and President Northrup of the Universitjr 

 of Minnesota. 



